Are Australia’s Top Cabernets Undervalued?

In its promotional material for its Bin 707, Penfolds states that “Bin 707 is Penfolds’ Cabernet Sauvignon version of Grange: ripe, intensely-flavoured fruit; completing fermentation and maturation in new oak; fully expressing a Penfolds understanding of multi-vineyard, multi-region fruit sourcing.”

No-one can doubt the pedigree of Bin 707 or its status as one of the Australia’s benchmark wines. It is up there with Grange in the pantheon of Australia’s 17 most exceptional wines, as ranked by the Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine V – the form guide of Australia’s best performing and most prized wines.

Certainly Australian cabernets are up against some stiff competition from overseas. Great Bordeaux cabernets like Château Margaux and Château Lafite Rothschild are widely considered the greatest wines in the world. And in the New World, California’s reputation has largely been forged by international acclaim for a stellar line-up of cabernets from great producers like Harlan Estate, Bryant Family Vineyard and Shafer to name but a few. The top wines from all of these producers typically trade at much higher prices than comparable Australian cabernets.

For Australian shiraz the international competition is not so fierce. Fortunately, Australia lays claim to some of the oldest shiraz vines in the world, and over the past 40 years these magnificent old vineyards have been brilliantly revived and nurtured by an exceptionally talented group of winemakers, which includes the likes of Rockford’s Robert O’Callaghan, Torbreck’s Dave Powell and Chris Ringland.

Influential wine publications like Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate have also regularly singled out Australian shiraz as among the best expressions in the world. Of the 2004 Chis Ringland Shiraz, for example, Jay Miller remarked that Ringland “now has 21 vintages under his belt, the results of which place him with Marcel Guigal, Gerard Chave, Christophe Baron, Manfred Krankl, and Michel Chapoutier as the international grandmasters of Syrah/Shiraz.” (Wine Advocate #186 Dec 2009)

The fact that the spotlight has been on Australian shiraz is perhaps not a bad thing for lovers of Australian cabernet. For the moment at least you can still pick up some brilliant examples at a fraction of the price of premium examples of French cabernet. To quote the Wine Advocate’s Neal Martin, “recent successes such as the outstanding Diana Madeline Cabernet 2004 and 2007…make the silly prices charged by Bordeaux even more ridiculous.” (The Matriach of Margaret: Cullen Wines by Neal Martin, eRobertParker.com May 2010)

2 Responses to Are Australia’s Top Cabernets Undervalued?

Are they undervalued? Definitely. The question is, why? In the early 90s, the Aus market couldn’t get enough Cabernet Sauvignon, and trying to sell Shiraz (often deceptively labelled as Hermitage at the time) was like trying to pull teeth. In a relatively short period, this all changed as the wine world developed a taste for Aus Shiraz.

Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t just drop in quality overnight. What happened was that the wine sector simply turned the attention over to pushing the easier sell. The good news for the consumer is that you can now snap up some great wines, with excellent pedigrees at a price that doesn’t stifle your cellar. Let the fashionistas pay top dollar. I’d rather drink more great, ‘old fashion’ wines!

These wines don’t come cheap. Wines from famous chateaus are highly sought by collectors, who look at these bottles as solid investments. Top bottlings have an austerity and heavily tannic nature that doesn’t lift until after at least eight to ten years of aging. Thus, classic Bordeaux wines are for the patient: those who are willing to wait to either enjoy them or to resell them. Given enough time, these wines will show notes of black currant and cassis, as well as an undercurrent of earth. Tannins will be firm and balanced, with sure notes of the oak used in fermentation and barrel aging. The last decade has seen some of the best vintages of these wines in recent memory: look to 2005, 2003, and 2000. Of course, these stellar years send collectors into a frenzy, so expect to pay a dear price for anything from these vintages.

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